Description:
Around the turn of the Twentieth Century, Oklahoma City had become a major distribution center due to its location in the geographic center of what would be become Oklahoma. A large part of the economy of the city was in processing and distributing agricultral products such as cotton, corn and wheat as well as livestock. As a distribution center, Oklahoma City controlled about 65% of the entire twin territories area. To serve this hungry distribution market, Oklahoma City could boast several large grain elevators and mills, a cotton compress and oil mill and a number of ice plants.
Although wheat was not the most valuable cash crop in Oklahoma, it was more widely produced than cotton and corn. Farmers would ship their grain (wheat or corn) to the city where it was milled and packaged and then distributed out to grocery wholesalers. The largest grain mill in the city was the Acme Milling Company which had a capacity of 500 barrels of flour and distributed their “Acme”, “Supreme”, “Jersey Lily”, “Gold Dust”, “Tiger”, and “Regal” flour products as far as the east coast. It was located at what is now SW 2nd along the Santa Fe tracks. Oklahoma City Mill & Elevator Company produced about 400 barrels of flour per day at its site along the tracks of the Frisco System railroad and the Choctaw, Oklahoma & Gulf Railroad at NW 1st (the 1st National Building is currently on this site). The Plainsifter Milling Company had a capacity of 300 barrels of flour and 100 barrels of corn meal per day; they sold flour under the “Blue Ribbon” and “Upper Ten” labels.
The Oklahoma Cotton Compress was located along the east side of the Santa Fe tracks from what is now SW 3rd to SW 5th. It was built in 1898 to serve Oklahoma Territory’s huge cotton crop. By statehood in 1907, Oklahoma was the 6th largest cotton state in the country. Raw cotton is very fluffy, soft and light and was picked by hand in the field and stored in sacks and large open bins. Transporting cotton in this form over long distances was awkward and bulky, so cotton would be brought by wagon to the cotton compress by farmers or cotton brokers where large presses would
compress it into dense bales for shipping. The earliest presses were hand turned by skilled screwmen, but later hydraulic presses were used. The Oklahoma City compress could handle about 100 bales per hour and about 10 freight cars of cotton bales were shipped every day at the height of production. Once loaded the cotton could be shipped all over the country and indeed all over the world as Oklahoma cotton was frequently shipped by rail to the seaport at Galveston, Texas. Photographs from the turn of the century show thousands of bales on the platforms at the compress waiting to be shipped. A companion to the compress, the Southwestern Cotton Oil Company is still operating on its original site just south of where the compress was located.
Another important industry in early Oklahoma City was ice manufacturing. Ice itself was not distributed as a commodity outside the the city, but ice made possible the production and transportation of fresh produce, dairy products, meat and even beer. Of course, ice companies also made home deliveries of ice.
Horse-drawn wagons and later trucks brought around ice in blocks of 25 to 100 pounds to residential customers. These blocks were placed in ice boxes in the home where they performed the same role as our modern refrigerators. Grocers and residents could also store their meat and other items in a meat locker at the plants. Around 1900 there were about five companies manufacturing ice and most of them manufactured related items as well. The most important firms were Crystal Ice Company (they also made ice cream )which was located at the south end of Robinson Avenue where the Frisco and Santa Fe Railroad tracks intersected. This plant produced about 40 tons of ice per day. Steffen-Bretch Ice and Ice Cream Company was another large plant east of the Santa Fe tracks at Oklahoma Avenue and Main Street. Oklahoma City was a major distributor of more than just these products. Warehouses full of thousands of consumer and industrial goods were numerous in the city and nearly every major American company had an agent in the city. By 1900 this gave rise to the large area we now call Bricktown and its historical old warehouses.
FURTHER READING
Oklahoma City and Its Market. Oklahoma City: Oklahoma Publishing Co., 1926. Oklahoma City Business and Its Trade Territory. Oklahoma City: Lockwood-Greene, 1931. Oklahoma City: The Industrial Prodigy of the Great Southwest. Oklahoma City: Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce, 1903?. Oklahoma Oklahoma Illustrated 1909. Oklahoma City: Jennings Pub., 1909.